


Precipice of the Scales

by theonlineidofme



Series: The Code of the Expanse [1]
Category: Shin Megami Tensei (Video Game 1992), Shin Megami Tensei Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, Demons, Dreams vs. Reality, F/M, Pre-Apocalypse, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28889997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonlineidofme/pseuds/theonlineidofme
Summary: As the Great Cataclysm approaches, Sho begins to awaken his old soul as the world between humanity and the Expanse grows thinner. Law and Chaos clamors for his favor as they select their Chosen ones, and Sho struggles to keep afloat as disaster grows into impending apocalypse.
Relationships: Law Hero/Law Hero's Girlfriend (Shin Megami Tensei), Past Adam/Eve, Past Adam/Lilith
Series: The Code of the Expanse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2118666
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> At last I have some semblance of doneness (with some editing!) to begin this AU! It starts with SMT because I feel that's a big thing for the franchise, whether or not the Great Cataclysm happens or not. So here we have the SMT Protagonist being more in touch with magic and the weird shit going on pre-Cataclysm and maybe, just maybe he and the other chosen heroes can do something before god nukes the world.
> 
> First, I have to handle the fact that during editing I added totally new content so the later chapters that need editing are gonna have to have a much larger overhaul than I was planning, so it might take a minute for me to do editing around work and such.
> 
> Edit: I do not own the rights to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, I'm just making words for free and for my delight (and anyone else who wants to join my delight) here on the internet

His feet pounded on wavering metal floors. White and red blurred his vision and Sho ran into and through the haze. He was running to the end, but running from the end, and suddenly a hand he could not see but feel pressed against his chest and stole his breath,

“Who dare passeth through these corridors?! Name thyself!”

The pressure vanished and Sho could breathe, could _speak_ , and his tongue answered before he could fear the voice.

“I am Sho,” Sho declared.

The face - very much like an old man molded into stone - flickered with white light. The great pressure returned again.

“Sho…what awaits thee beyond this door? The Law of those under the light of the One True God? They will forge walls of greatness out of desolation. The Chaos of those who rely upon strength and the Abyss? They will descend into the desolation, away from the light of the One True God and blaspheme with the False Ones. Tread lightly with both upon your scale.”

Something stirred in Sho. A familiarity. The dream wavered in his wonderings.

_One True God? What of the third opt-_

Then Sho was alone as the walls whipped past him and the floor glided under his feet except perhaps he was running again but was he? He didn’t know he wasn’t tired, wasn’t _awake_ to know.

 _Awake?_ He wondered before the blur ended and his eyes focused on blue now.

The blue swirled as if there was a wind, and it clung to the wrists of the kneeling people. They were before a…Sho frowned, trying to remember the word. It was brown, wood, and looked like an english letter or a broken piece of…something.

There was a figure nailed to this wooden object. A young man, close to Sho’s age, long hair that was similar in color to Sho’s. This man wasn’t familiar, the agony and despair overwhelming his face, but then words fell from Sho’s tongue.

“Law,” Sho said. The kneeling worshippers rose. Their robes billowed more aggressively. “Release Yuji.”

Sho’s body shook. His mouth tasted of sand. The worshippers murmured, but they grabbed Yuji and he started to glow.

“I…” Yuji said. “Thank you, I…”

Sho’s chest tightened. The voice who had demanded Sho’s name rang as the worshippers vanished.

“You shall not stray! Keep to your paths!”

Yuji shook, and Sho saw wings behind him. Neither spoke, and Sho felt the ire from the voice, but they began to run.

The halls shivered and blurred again. Sho could not hear his footsteps; he could not hear Yuji’s footsteps. It was silent - _it was a dream_.

 _What?_ Sho wondered.

Then he and Yuji stopped. The hall steadied, and a bloody and bruised person - Sho couldn’t tell their gender or age or even if they were Japanese, like him and Yuji, or a foreigner.

A monster, humanoid but wrinkled with curly, pointed teeth, sat on the beaten person. It grinned at him and Yuji. Yuji gasped and stumbled away. He cowered behind Sho, but Sho stepped forward.

The monster cackled. “Oh, I see what lies in your heart. Law and Chaos will be by your side, but will they remain on those paths? How Law crackles at your heart - but I, I only cackle at what may come. It may not help Chaos, but oh, it will be fun.”

Its lips curled around its teeth and it vanished. The man - boy, like him, like Yuji - groaned and the battered face met Sho’s eyes.

“Chaos,” Sho said as the boy pulled himself to his knees. “Takeshi.”

Takeshi stood, and his form vanished into the glow. A figure helped steady him, but it vanished into the glow. Sho looked down at his hands. They were glowing and did not look like his hands. He turned to Yuji and saw Yuji had become a blob of glowing human too.

“What in the fucking hell,” Takeshi said. “That was such a great dream…”

“I…sorry,” Sho said.

“Ugh, come on let’s go.”

Takeshi turned. Sho could not see, but felt that Takeshi was looking around. Then the three went running. The walls blurred into red and white again.

Silence rang in his ears, but this time he _felt_ things. Hands brushed his arms, and the thrum of whatever _Law_ and _Chaos_ was brimming within and around Yuji and Takeshi.

The dream kept bleeding into reality - was he in a dream? Why did that idea keep coming back? Sho grit his teeth.

Running water echoed in his ears and Sho’s fingers brushed against the water. He was waist deep in a spring. It wasn’t a hot spring, but he couldn’t feel any warmth or cold from this water. His jeans were soaked. Sho lifted his arms and clutched at his shirt. He shivered, not from cold, but…he was alone. It was dark. Yuji and Takeshi were gone. The water began to get louder and louder. Sho was shaking, and then there was a splash.

It echoed in the darkness. The running water quieted.

“Who’s there?” A soft light filled the space. The water was a deep blue, and a naked woman with dark hair turned to meet his eyes.

“ _Adam_ ,” she said. Her eyes brimmed with tears. Sho blinked. Her face tightened. “Forgive the slip…Sho.”

“You’re…” Sho frowned. He knew her but didn’t. Something thrummed in his gut. A name, a feeling, brimming under a locked lid.

“I am Yuriko,” she said. “If only you had been born sooner, or I later, and perhaps you would know - ”

“It’s not,” Sho said. “It’s not…Yuriko. It’s…”

Sho held himself tighter and the water warmed around his legs. As if someone was pouring heat onto him, like he was about to burst into flames from the toe up. He blinked and Yuriko stood in front of him.

He held her gaze as she ran a hand through his hair.

“Perhaps you will remember what you couldn’t before.”

Sho blinked again. He heard Yuji and Takeshi shouting. Sho opened his mouth to respond when a new voice called.

“Sho! Get up, you don’t need to sleep all day!”

Sho jolted. He opened his eyes and saw his floor. He moved and fell out of bed with a grunt. His mother called again and Sho responded as he untangled himself from his blankets.

 _What an odd dream,_ Sho thought. He yawned. Unless…

Sho stretched as his computer blinked and beeped. He frowned. The bulky machine had been shut off last night, and this was an odd color. Hazy green with a tinge of red in the corners.

As he crouched to sit at the desk, letters typed themselves onto the screen. He tensed, and his chest thrummed with the memory of the halls, and he felt something - many somethings, not many someones -

And then he read the finished message, and the thrumming became a hum in his blood.

_To all those connected to the net…_

_At present, we humans are facing an immense threat._

_The demons from legends and myths have awakened and are poised to attack._

_The only way to fight the demon threat is to make use of demons ourselves. This program is the Key._

_I hope that some brave soul will take this program and rise up…The demons must be fought to save humanity._

The sender was named Stephen. Sho didn’t know a Stephen. The message flashed. Then a loading menu appeared.

 _The hell?_ Sho thought. _I didn’t click anything._

Another message appeared when the download completed itself astonishingly fast, and it typed itself out before overtaking his screen.

_By now, you have the Demon Summoning Program._

_My next program isn’t quite complete, so you’ll have to be patient for that._

_Until then, the e-manual I’m sending for the Demon Summoning Program should explain how to use it._

“Sho!” Mother called. “Are you ready?”

“Yea - ” Sho choked as the humming of connections awoke. He lost sight of his room, and he stood in the hazy white and red halls. Other bodies shimmered, and Sho reached out.

His own hands were glowing, but he focused and the shimmer died. And he was dull, pale, but in a _familiar_ body.

“Clever,” an unfamiliar voice said.

Sho looked around. His body felt heavy. He couldn’t see anyone. The walls heaved violently.

“Remember the COMP!” the voice shouted. “This alone will not save Tokyo or the world!”

The world faded, and Sho woke on his back. Pascal was licking his face. Sho blinked.

“Pascal, get off!” Pascal whined as Mother pulled the blue and white dog off of Sho. “Sho! Are you okay?”

Sho sat up as his mother rubbed his face and hair. He blinked.

“I, yeah,” he answered. “Sorry.”

Mother pulled him close. She took a shaky breath, and Sho blinked against her shoulder. They stayed like that for a time, Pascal whining behind Sho. Then Mother pulled away, and patted his hair.

“Why don’t you go visit Aoi and Dr. Tanaka next door?”

“I’m fine,” Sho said even as he felt the thrumming of the _magic_.

 _Magic?_ Sho wondered. But it made sense. Whatever he was seeing wasn’t normal, and it couldn’t just be a _dream_ , could it?

Mother clutched his face. Her smile was strained as she held Sho’s gaze. Her eyes were darker than his own, and her hair was dark and almost blue under the sunlight. His bleached brown hair crinkled in her fingers.

“Do it for me?”

“I…okay. It’ll, uh, be nice to see Aoi,” Sho said with a nervous chuckle. He felt his cheeks burn.

His mother nodded, and she released him. She stood, huffing at Pascal. Sho stood, and Sho left his room.

The thrumming in his chest intensified, and the rumbling voice of the halls echoed in his ears. They sounded tired, angry, but curious.

 _“Taster of the fruit,”_ they said. “ _What surprises you hold. What will you do against the Great Cataclysm?”_

Sho blinked, and he was sitting in Aoi’s house, her father Dr. Tanaka examining him. Sho heard Aoi laugh and Pascal barking further inside the house.

Dr. Tanaka smiled and Sho blinked again.

“You seem physically fine, but I hope you don’t mind staying all day,” Dr. Tanaka said. “Your mother is rather frazzled about your fainting spell.”

“Yes sir,” Sho said. “I mean, I don’t mind.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. Dr. Tanaka nodded.

“Probably for the best to hunker down while the police search,” Dr. Tanaka said. Sho frowned.

“Search?”

“There was a murder,” Dr. Tanaka said. “Did you not hear the sirens last night?”

Sho shook his head. Dr. Tanaka hummed, but then shrugged.

“Well, it’s good to see you over,” Dr. Tanaka said. “I’ll be working on some reports. Why don’t you go and visit with Aoi?”

Sho stood and walked further into the home. He approached Aoi’s door. He heard her laughing as Pascal yipped. Sho smiled and stepped inside.


	2. Threads of Destiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sho has a few almost fateful conversations, destiny is steering of course, and Sho almost ends up demon chow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm making slow and steady process on the rewrites - because while I know I'm more or less ending in the same place, the journey there is changing as I "edit" haha

The hours passed by quietly. Sho had awoken at midday, and it was slowly crawling to night. Even with Kichijōji in lockdown, Dr. Tanaka left to see some of his neighbors that were also patients.

Aoi had been unsurprised and even excited when she heard a knock at the door. As she rushed off, Pascal watched with perked ears and a curious expression. Sho’s chest thudded.

 _It is not the Law of the land,_ it sang. _But the Law of the above and the holy, Law is at your side, first soul of the garden._

Sho followed slowly. It was not his heart thrumming, but something deeper and older and far too many to be just _himself_.

Sho nearly stumbled at the thought, but then he was in the front room. Aoi had the door opened and -

The young man in the doorway was a stranger to Sho. He had shoulder-length, bleached (or perhaps natural?) brown hair and a long, pale face that beamed as he looked at Aoi. But the thrumming and the strings and the souls clambered as they looked upon the Avatar of Law and Sho _knew_ him.

He opened his mouth to speak, to spill the secrets that was the mythical world in his dreams, in Yuji’s dreams -

“Hi, I’m Yuji,” Yuji said with a nod. Or perhaps a slight bow on the head?

Sho almost deflated, but then he saw, burning in Yuji’s eyes, the recognition. Yuji knew Sho just as Sho knew him - but where Yuji was Law, what was Sho to Yuji?

“Sho,” Sho responded. Aoi gave him a look - irritated, confused, he wasn’t sure, it could have been neither, but she seemed so far away - and he continued. “Nice to meet you, Yuji. No honorifics?”

Yes this was how he greeted actual strangers, not souls linked to him by dreams. Aoi’s face relaxed.

Yuji stepped inside and shook his head.

“No need,” he said. “Same for you?”

Sho nodded, but he tensed as Pascal came bounding up. He growled, and Yuji shut the door with the same tenseness.

“Pascal, it’s fine,” Aoi said. Yuji and Sho met gazes, and as Yuji moved Pascal stepped to the door.

There was knocking. Sho stepped forward before Aoi reached the door.

Law and Neutrality worked in sync as Law took Aoi - human, fragile, _this is not her journey_ \- and Neutrality took the door with Pascal at his heels.

 _I’m going mad,_ Sho thought as he opened the door. And in the setting sun, there were soldiers with guns waiting.

Sho blinked. The soldiers frowned. They opened their mouths to speak, but then Sho felt the thrumming in his chest again.

The soldiers turned, swearing, and Sho saw monsters with teeth and blood and no humanity in their faces. He slammed the door before Pascal could run out.

 _Demons!_ He thought. Then he remembered his computer, and the odd arm computer his dad had brought home a week ago saying he’d found it at work.

Demon summoning program…portable computer…a fighting chance.

“Sho!” Aoi shouted, and then she screamed as several windows shattered.

Claws dug into the door. Sho tumbled and wrapped his arms around Pascal. Pascal snarled and bit at the monsters even before they approached.

“Duck!” Yuji shouted. Sho glanced back and Aoi was crouched by Yuji’s feet as air burst from Yuji’s hands. Behind him there were angels and humanoid body starting to form.

Everything began to go quiet. Sho felt himself sinking. Pascal’s fur slipped out of his hands, and he fell into the dreamland.

He fell through the shifting halls, the spring, darkness, lives he did not remember but did deep in his blood - he saw an old man and an old woman, and them dying, and the woman returning, aging growing before she became -

The face faded before the name returned and then he landed on his back in dark green grass under a darker green sky.

“How interesting, my darling.”

Sho sat up, almost impossibly quick but wasn’t this place just impossibly impossible? His hurt throbbed.

Yuriko stood before him. Green bled onto her and this body seemed to want to whisk away and wait. This body?

Yuriko stepped closer as Sho’s thoughts tumbled over themselves. He was Sho but he wasn’t always and he felt he knew Yuriko not as Yuriko, but not even the old woman whose name was dead and buried but as -

A hand touched his ear. Sho flinched, the hand retreated. He felt frozen under her dark gaze, like he would sink into the green as he had sank through Aoi’s floor above. Or had it been below? Perhaps he’d been falling all wrong in this strange place.

“You certainly know how to defy your chosen path,” Yuriko said. “I do hope you remember me.”

“Yes,” Sho said. “I met you as Yuriko in the spring.”

Yuriko chuckled and two other names swirled on Sho’s tongue. He’d known her before his birth when his old souls swirled in a demon summoner, and long, long before when he stood in a garden of perfection.

“Correct,” Yuriko smiled. “Now for this interesting development, how about I help you complete the set?”

Sho blinked, and some of the green faded. A dash of red sprinkled from Yuriko’s hand. Sho pushed himself up as an image of a young man appeared. Slicked hair and a long coat, and this was someone Sho knew his mom would fret about him meeting. But the familiar wrenching rhythm began in Sho’s chest again. Sho was Neutrality, Yuji was Law, and this was Chaos. This was -

“Takeshi,” Sho said.

“Yes,” Yuriko said. “And Gotou’s warriors close in on him, and Yuji is being circled by Thorman’s gaze, and even _she_ is in the midst of it all.”

The green continued to fade and Yuriko reached out to Sho. When she grabbed hold, he would send him back to his destiny. Perhaps he would be by her side, and she would not feel the sting of betrayal she was allowing to bloom at who was surrounding him and where he may go.

He grabbed her hand first. She gasped. The green around them intensified. Numbers slid off Sho’s fingers. There was murmuring between hearing and the numbers and none of it made sense and all of it made sense.

Demon summoning had advanced. He needed the COMP to understand, as the remnants of the devil summoner he was began to fade.

“If I call you by name,” Sho said. “And not this new disguise, will you help me change what is coming?”

The Great Cataclysm. The name implied badness, and knowing that Law and Chaos was involved dragged the oldest soul forward because this was the conflict that ruined the most perfect garden. And Sho cared not for the garden, but he cared for those the Great Cataclysm would wipe out.

Yuriko frowned. Her eyes narrowed, but she held Sho’s gaze.

“I remember being devil summoners with you, being Itsuki and in love with you when you were Megumi, but I knew you long before then.”

Yuriko’s hand chilled in his fingers. She seemed to grow paler, and her hair more tangled.

“What do you remember, Sho?” she asked.

“You are Lilith, and Adam’s soul gave birth to mine. I’m sorry for his rejection and what he tried,” Sho said.

Then the green consumed him, but he did not fall. Myriad voices and opinions and hearts and minds and everything swirled around him, the lives of Adam as he continued to walk the earth until god called him again, until he reunited with Eve and stood before the god they could not gaze upon the same after that beguiling fruit.

“Leave Gotou to me.” Lilith’s arms wrapped around him. “I had wanted you to be Adam, or Itsuki, but…” Her arms tightened.

Sho could not speak, but the swirl of souls began to sink down into him. The green was fading.

“Go forth and meet the task ahead,” Lilith said. “Itsuki did always say Sho would be a good name for a son.”

Sho felt this was important, but then everything was fading again. The light filtered into his room and he felt his bed beneath him and he was alone.

He was home. Sho scrambled up and to his computer. He dug through boxes even as he heard unholy screeching and gunfire outside.

He found the glove. It was a portable computer, so impossible, but so right for the situation. He plugged in cords and transferred the demon summoning program. The battles outside grew quieter. The glove computer suddenly clamped down on him, and his chest thrummed. His ears burned, and suddenly instead of screaming, he shouting in the distance.

Where unholy horrors had once screeched, it now sounded like Japanese to his ears. Sho blinked. The computer tightened, digging into his arm and deep inside. The thrumming turned to burning. Sho winced.

There was a scream. Sho jolted. Another scream and Sho ran from his room. The screaming stopped, but it had been downstairs.

 _Mom’s home!_ Sho remembered. _Oh god, one of the monsters must have -_

Sho tumbled down the stairs in his hurry. The computer endured, and he heard cackling. Sho onto his knees with a pained grunt.

He blinked as a form shimmered, but then his mom approached him. There were some stains on her clothes.

“Mom,” Sho said. He reached out to brush his fingers on the blouse’s torn shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yes....Sho....” Mom’s eyes blinked. Her eyes rolled and her breath stank of fresh blood.

Fuck.

“How tasty you will be.” Her clothes tore as her skin melted. A blue monster unhinged its jaw and a horn brushed Sho’s head.

Sho screamed and threw out his arms. His fingers smacked the monster’s - _demon’s_ \- chest and they were curled like claws.

 _Fight, fight, fight!_ Sho’s being screamed _but he had nothing to fight with_ even in the depths of his soul and if he fled with that odd magic then -

There was an explosion. Wind and lightning and fire crashed and boomed around him. The monster screeched as it melted before Sho’s eyes. Hair sizzled. Teeth shattered. Blue skin turned to ash which exploded throughout the room. Ash filled Sho’s nose and he fell onto his face. The ash on the floor was sticky and smelled horrendous.

Tears streamed down his face. His mom had died, the monster was dead, but his mom had to dead too. Shivers rolled down his back as he lay crying in the ashes at the bottom of the stairs.

Footsteps and barking approached, but Sho continued crying as it felt like the world burned around him.


	3. Fraying Threads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I finally finished this last night after hoping I'd finish it earlier in February. Alas, that did not happen, even with the shutdown from the winter storm in my area (not Texas, I was luckily safe and warm away from that infrastructure disaster).
> 
> I hope you all enjoy what I have here! Mild spoilers Takeshi does finally join the group, but in a particular special way :)

A girl touched Sho’s arm. He flinched away, but through his hazy, tear-filled vision he saw _her_. She had some sort of scarf coat wrapped around herself, and she had brown hair like he did. Sho had never seen her face before, not this face at least, but the words tumbled from his mouth with familiarity.

“Aoi,” he said.

“Sho,” she said.

Sho was sure this was another dream. He was in pain from the loss of his mom, and reeling from the horror of the demon’s breath rolling over him. Aoi reached toward him again. There was something in this Aoi’s gaze that had a different intimacy than friendship, than family, and Sho wondered if his face betrayed that same look. He both knew this girl deep in his soul, and also knew she was a stranger he had not seen with his eyes before. Her hand brushed his cheek.

“Sho,” she said. Again. She mouthed another name, but Sho shook his head.

Footsteps. Thrumming. Sho looked away from Aoi-the-stranger, and saw behind her Aoi-the-friend and Yuji and Pascal and there was a shimmer and someone _had_ been there but then they _weren’t_.

Sho closed his eyes and pressed his against his eyes. The house stank of mucus and ash, and he choked as ash clung to his cracked lips. He wiped at his face, smearing the ash with his tears and snot and the blood on his sleeve. His stomach roiled and his throat burned.

Sho kept the bile down. Aoi - he wanted to call her by another older name as it thrummed deep in his soul that had been Adam, but that wasn’t her anymore - pressed a gentle hand on his face.

Sho felt a different hand on his back. Yuji appeared when Sho glanced over. Yuji was glowing in Sho’s eyes, and great wings fluttered on Yuji’s back.

Sho blinked rapidly. He felt the recognition deep in his soul, but it felt like the name was stitched to his tongue. He felt the world shift and felt himself sinking when another hand grabbed one of his.

He met Aoi Tanaka, his best friend and former (former? his feelings felt all muddied) crush held his gaze. She was speaking. He couldn’t hear her, but he focused on her. On her brown eyes and black hair that gleamed in the sun when they walked to school. On her round face that always got her compliments from the other boys with comparisons to the moon, and Sho was sure Yuji must have done a similar compliment if they were together.

Or maybe not, and Sho was back in the moment. He was back in the destroyed first floor of his home. His mom was gone.

His mom was gone.

Sho felt tears streaming down his face again, but he managed to speak.

“How bad is it?”

Their hands gave more pressure. He felt Aoi’s hand almost scrape her nails on his face. Yuji pressed harder into Sho’s back. And Aoi Tanaka wrapped her other hand around their clasped ones.

“Bad,” Aoi responded. Aoi stood, and Sho followed her lead.

“The demons were summoned,” the other Aoi said. She briefly met Sho’s gaze. “And now they’re tearing through the city while Gotou’s soldiers fight for control and the American embassy is…there’s been lots of threats, but they’ve barricaded themselves.”

“You know a lot,” Yuji said. “I’m glad you’re helping us.”

Aoi Tanaka squeezed Sho’s hand, and he saw her glance at Aoi with her scarf and readiness for this hell, and then she dropped his hand and went to Yuji.

Sho rubbed his hands together, missing the warmth.

“We should go,” Sho said. He touched the demon summoning device on his arm. “I think we can help, don’t you?”

Aoi smiled at him, and pulled at her gloves. Yuji grinned, and slung an arm around Aoi Tanaka’s waist.

“Let’s go, Sho,” Yuji said.

And so they stepped out of the ruined home into the determining world outside.

Battling came far too easy to them. Aoi was by far the most practiced as she healed and fried the monsters they came across, and Yuji had been fighting longer today with his wind that Sho had even been in battle. But Sho fell into an easy step behind them, armed only with Pascal’s teeth, sweet talking or threatening the demon to be his thrall, and soon his COMP was full.

They were near Inogashira Park. In between battles, the Aoi Tanaka and Aoi Yasuda, as she’d finally introduced herself, had spoken and Aoi Tanaka pried and finally Aoi Yasuda had revealed what she knew - except for the soul shuttering closeness between her and Sho, because while Yuji _must_ sense the bond, but Aoi Tanaka did not need to know.

She’d already adopted a concerning pallor about the Expanse and devil summoners and the creation of an artificial connection between here and the Expanse. Remembrance of demon summoning thrummed in Sho, but the snatches he remembered were not tied to what he was doing now.

He was an untrained boy, hacking into the language of demons and bending them to his will. It unsettled him. This shouldn’t be his life.

Or should it? His soul thrummed side by side with Yuji and Aoi Yasuda and Pascal, as Aoi Tanaka watched and hid because she couldn’t fight, she wasn’t the final piece to destiny to -

Sho began to slip into blue and the COMP crackled in his ears, and then there was an hand on his upper arm. Sho glanced over and Yuji tightened his grip. Wings glimmered on Yuji’s back. They were larger than before, and then Sho blinked. The wings were gone, and Yuji squeezed Sho’s arm again.

“I’m here,” Sho muttered. Yuji nodded and released his arm.

Aoi Yasuda was looking to the park, not towards Gotou’s headquarters or the American embassy. Sho and Yuji stepped forward.

“Sho,” Aoi said. “There’s something helpful ahead for your COMP.”

“Okay,” Sho said. “Let’s go.”

Aoi Tanaka made to protest. Sho turned to her, but Yuji wrapped an arm around her. He muttered to her and Sho turned away. He rubbed at his cheeks, swallowed, and walked up to Aoi Yasuda. Pascal brushed his head against Sho’s calves.

“Where are we going?” Sho asked as the group walked into the abandoned park.

“The Cathedral of Shadows.” Sho frowned at Aoi’s answer, but he looked around. The park was eerie and empty. They were only a few blocks from his home, and they’d fought dozens of monsters, but there were no monsters.

But there were no soldiers or civilians. The blue edged into Sho’s vision again.

There was an old man watching and walking. Sho tensed, but the old man did not approach them. Sho felt the ties to Yuji and Aoi, grounding him on their journey even as they faded and he focused on the old man.

As Sho watched, his form shifted. Sometimes it fell into the blue and almost vanishing. Other times, he seemed younger and more like a priest.

A guardian deity of the shrine?

The old man met Sho’s gaze.

He was in the blue. He was falling, falling, whispers in his ears.

“Let mankind be free,” a voice said in his right ear.

“Let mankind have order,” said another in his left ear.

Sho winced and his head pounded. His group approached the shrine, and he heard Aoi Yasuda mention a Cathedral of Shadows being inside before the clamor in his ears and soul rang throughout his mind.

Sho’s past lives clamored their opinions and fears, blurring into tv static and his head readied to burst. The blue darkened and the static grew louder. The air thickened like pudding, and the static and the whispering voices quieted.

A hand reached through the shell and grabbed Sho’s wrist. Whatever encased him fell and splattered onto a floor he could not see, and he saw the man before him.

The man was old, but strong. He had rough, gray hair, and deep brown skin, and when his brown eyes met Sho’s own brown eyes, Sho immediately knew this man.

“Adam,” he said.

“Sho,” Adam greeted. “You are at a crossroads, and I have a proposition.”

Sho blinked, and pulled at his shirt. Adam held onto him still, and Sho realized that while Adam seemed to be solid and standing, Sho could only see Adam and he felt he might fly away if Adam were to let him go. A chill ran through Sho at the thought.

“What…proposition?” Sho asked, the words tumbling out in a gurgle. His tongue twisted wrong on the words, and they did not seem Japanese or even the little English he knew, but more like…He reached up to touch his head, but he couldn’t feel the COMP connections.

 _I’m dreaming,_ Sho thought. _Again, while I’m awake._

“Instead of flailing around, with only bits and pieces, and the words of me and the rest of us influencing one way or the other. You deserve the clarity of the fruit.”

Adam pulled Sho down and the blue lightened and the room felt like a hall in an aquarium. Flittering light, but still blue, and his feet touched down. Sho’s hand twitched, and Adam released him.

“Law is to follow god as if we never received the clarity from the fruit,” Adam began. He sank down to sit, resting his hands on his knees. “No questions, no deviance. The angels love you, but only so long as you prove you are worthy of that love.”   
Sho sank down. He clutched his knees to his chest.

“Chaos is…survival of the fittest, I believe is the modern way to say it. It is freedom to use the clarity of the fruit,” Adam continued. “But the powerful rule, fighting and crushing to keep their power, but always they will be overturned but those they squash, and those they squash follow their example. And then they are defeated, again and again until it all ends…but where does it end for immortality?”

Adam grinned, his teeth gleaming. Sho blinked. Adam sighed, his teeth falling away.

“And then there is neutrality, where man takes hold of his destiny and forges on out from under the heels of gods and demons. Will we do good, we will do bad? That is our choice, not a…” Adam tapped his chin. “Not a…puppeteer’s. Yes, I think that’s right. Of course, gods and demons will always try, again and again, to regain power, for chaos and law are immortal even when they have new leaders. Neutrality must always be born in the cracks.”

Sho blinked. The blue was becoming stronger around Sho, and the feeling of the ground was disappearing.

“Now Sho,” Adam said. Dust seemed to be gathering on his shoulders and in his hair. Sho focused on him, but he was slowly becoming hard to see.

Sho blinked, and he was standing in a strange room. The floor beneath him looked as if he were inside the shrine, but before him were dark wires and coils.

Large tubes filled with gas and light and he didn’t recognize the monsters in them. There was shouting as a boy opened one of them, and Yuji bumped into Sho but then the boy closed himself in. Sho’s chest thrummed as he and the boy made eye contact.

“Takeshi,” Sho murmured. And then Takeshi vanished into a consuming light.

“How curious,” said a man dressed in blue rooms. “How _very_ curious.”

Sho felt a hand on his arm, and saw a large creature with white and blue fur, but he rushed forward to the tubes. The light faded, and a man in blue and red armor appeared. He emanated power, and flames danced on his fingers.

“Takeshi?” Sho reached forward. The flames vanished, and the demon fused man gripped his arm.

“Holy shit,” he said. “You’re back Sho.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have one more prepared chapter that needs heavy revisions given how things have massively changed from the first draft so there may be one more chapter, but also there may be two more depending on how I break things up. Thanks for reading, comments and kudos are appreciated


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